The gracefully arched adobe wall took the Westminster High School kids months to build, but the deck, the brick border, the tulip plantings and neat junipers went up at the Colorado Garden & Home Show in a matter of days.
So, once freshman Nelly Baeza hung the handmade wreath of cotton balls, pine cones and tree branches just-so in the arch’s center, the students could relax a bit, show off their display and bask in triumph.
Westminster’s horticulture program, one of the few left on the Front Range, has been awarded a $100,000 grant, the largest amount given out this year, from the garden show’s nonprofit organization.
Philanthropy has always been central to the garden show’s mission, said executive director Jim Fricke. The show started in 1958 to raise money to fund the Denver Botanic Gardens, he said.
This year, the nonprofit arm awarded $500,000 in scholarships and grants, Fricke said.
The Westminster grant, matched by another $100,000 from Adams County School District 50, will build a new greenhouse, said Phil Love, who is in his 33rd year heading the Westminster program.
The program dates to 1975, and the old greenhouse pretty much does too, Love said.
Worse, it’s not even at Westminster High anymore. The new Westminster High opened last fall, and the old campus now houses Hidden Lake High School Alternative program.
That’s halfway across town from the new Westminster High, and it’s where the old greenhouse sits.
Love hopes the new one — built to maximize light and insulation, and engineered to withstand Front Range winds as well as dumpings of snow — will be ready by next fall.
In all, 100 students are in the program this year, and all of them got to help design and build the exhibit that will be on display at the Garden & Home Show, which continues through Sunday.
Freshmen and sophomores take an introductory class, while upperclassmen spend two-hour blocks of time learning landscaping, turf management and the like.
Horticulture is just one field students can explore in Westminster’s Career Technical Education, which offers study in such areas as health care, computer technology and masonry.
“We’re project-based learning,” said Love. “It’s rewarding to see students develop an ‘I-can-do-it’ attitude.”
Anchored by that stucco arch, which was trucked in from the school’s campus in pieces and assembled at the Colorado Convention Center, the display includes a deck surrounded by landscaped borders and potted flowers.
Most of the materials were donated, Love said.
“It takes a lot of hard work,” said senior Chris “C.J.” Sonnier as he swept up dirt and bits of cotton that had dropped off the wreath. “It’s not something you can mess around while you’re doing it.”
Karen Auge: 303-954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com
